Arcadia's Fires
by AlexxFury
Summary: So, you want to hear another story about Vault Hunters? Yes, yes, I know one; one with both old and new heroes, one taking place on a planet far away from here. Arcadia, they call it, and it is not too different from our home of Pandora. It all started when the Dahl corporation was taken over by a man who worshiped Handsome Jack, and sought to "clean" more than just Pandora...


**I haven't written a full-out story in a long time, and I'm currently absolutely in love with Borderlands, so...fan-fiction ho!**

**Please note that this is mostly based on what I theorize the third game (not the Pre-Sequel) will be like, alongside things that I really want the third game to be about even if it's unlikely. Also a lot of ships. So much fucking ships.**

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The train zipped through space at a speed that, were it not equipped with the latest internal inertia stabilizing motors, would've torn it's passengers apart. It was mostly filled with civilian passengers, either on vacation or business. Though Dahl owned the Startrain Network, it's employees would never use it to travel.

In the final train car, six people sat in silence. Well, relative silence; a young boy with a gasmask was muttering to himself, but even his odd behavior had become part of the buzzing quiet after six hours. The train ride to Arcadia was long, monotonous and boring for a group of Vault Hunters come for various different reasons.

Zach had been looking out the window for the majority of the time, but now the bright and large planet of Arcadia was in sight and he turned back to the rather anti-social group he'd been riding with. All this time he hadn't paid much attention to his companions, but being the story-lover he was, he knew by the pattern of successful Vault Hunters that if he wanted all that riches, fame and loot rather than death, he better work with them. Or, at the least, understand his potential competition.

Zach had been an Engineer working for Hyperion, but once Handsome Jack was dead he took his chance to leave the brutal conditions of the company. Looking around the car, however, he figured his backstory was nothing in comparison to the other's.

The man closest to him was built like a brick shithouse, covered in scars that looked like stitches. Or they were stitches. Either way it was kind of terrifying, especially when the dark-haired man looked back at him with startling purple eyes. Who the fuck had _purple eyes_? Their tone reminded him of slag, and he bit back a shudder and tried to smile in a friendly manner. The Frankenstein of a guy grunted and looked away again. Okay, not one for conversation. Zach could dig that.

He turned to his other side to see a short hispanic guy, thin as a rail and wearing a heavy-looking black trench coat. Half his head was shaved, and covered in a tattoo that looked like digital lines and reached down under his jacket. This guy didn't turn to look at Zach, his eyes closed like he was asleep, but the Engineer was kind of glad; Trench Coat here didn't have eyebrows, just piercings on either end where eyebrows were supposed to be, and that was kind of fucking creepy.

There was only one other male in the car, the broadly-built teenage boy that talked to himself and wore a gas mask. His face was scarred up like Slag Eyes', but they were normal "I got cut up with a sharp object" scars instead of "I'm built from the parts of dead guys" scars. Gas Mask wore incredibly normal teenager clothes; some shirt with a band he'd never heard of on the front, black jeans covered in chains and explosives...actually, pretty much every part of him was covered in explosives, belts that held explosives, belts that held bags that most likely held explosives. If the kid tripped he'd be in so many pieces that his momma wouldn't know which ones to bury. Zach made a mental note to stay out of his blast radius.

There were two girls on the bus as well, and both were much easier on the eyes. The first was a short and lanky teen, wearing gear kind of like a Tunnel Rat; but her head was exposed to reveal a soft and young face, like the girl had never seen a fight in her life. Rat-girl looked over at Zach and waved at him, prompting him to wave back. He felt kind of bad to see two teens here, trying to be Vault Hunters, even if he was pretty sure Gas Mask was some sort of Psycho.

And then there was the last girl - no, _woman_. She was dressed in a skin-tight, sleeveless suit that revealed spiraling, mystical blue tattoos running down her left side. Part of them snuck out from underneath her blonde hair and curled under her clear blue eyes. It didn't take much brain power (which Zach didn't have much to spare anyways) to figure out that this lovely lady was a Siren.

"Hi." he found himself blurting out at her. Everyone in the car, even Gas Mask, looked up and turned to face him. Zach paused, cleared his throat, and tried to make himself look much braver than he currently felt. "Hey. Uh. We're about ten minutes from Arcadia. So I figured, we should maybe get to know each other. Seeing that we're all Vault Hunters."  
He was greeted with silence. Then, Slag Eyes offered him a hand so large he could've strangled Zach with his thumb and forefinger.  
"Alphonse. Former Pandoran bandit." the stitched up man laughed. "Emphasis on former because I like living."  
"Ania," the Rat-girl piped up in a thick Slavic accent. She was quickly talked over by Gas Mask.  
"M-my name is P-proxy." his voice was a little muffled by his mask, which was not helped by his obvious stutter. Thankfully everyone on the bus got the point, and Proxy looked obviously relieved about not having to repeat himself.

"I'm Sailor," the Siren said after a moment. "And if any of you gets any funny ideas, just know that I can kill you with my brain."  
"Kid, I've seen two Siren Vault Hunters before you," Al responded with a chuckle. "You don't need to tell me to keep my distance."  
"That just leaves you," Zach turned to Trench Coat, who was still slumped in a sleeping position in spite of staring at the others.  
"Kenny." the caramel-skinned man replied flatly. "And what about you? I didn't realize Hyperion let their Engineers this far off the leash."

Zach winced slightly as he felt all eyes on him again. No one liked Hyperion. Hell, he didn't like Hyperion, even when he was working for them. Their yellow Engineer gear was impossible to not recognize if you were from Pandora, Eden-6 or any other planet where Hyperion's presence dominated. Well, used to dominate. Mr. Blake was having quite a difficult time fixing the broken corporate reputation Handsome Jack left behind after his death.

"Ex-Hyperion." Zach immediately responded. "I left. I figured my chances of survival were higher hunting Vaults." No one laughed except Sailor, who let out a moderately sadistic giggle.  
"You're completely right." she told him with a smile. Just as he was returning it, all of them jolted towards the front of the car as it lurched to a halt; except for Proxy, who was wearing his seatbelt. The masked teen looked out the window, his brows furrowing with confusion.  
"We're n-not near the st-tation y-yet. There's a-a D-Dahl ship outside, w-w-with Engineers b-boarding," the stuttering boy informed them, reaching to unbuckle his seat belt. The others pushed themselves to their feet, looking out the windows as well.

"WHERE ARE THE VAULT HUNTERS?" a robotic-filtered voice came from the train car in front of them.  
"This is a passenger train!" a scared woman replied desperately. She was then heard screaming, and what sounded like blood sprayed across the wall. The other passengers began screaming as well, and there were more sounds of violence until someone screamed;  
"THEY'RE IN THE BACK CAR!"

Ania digistructed a Maliwan SMG out of her pack, stepping forward, towards the door.  
"Just like all the good stories," the girl quipped just before the door was kicked open. She let loose a rain of bullets, all the ones that missed boomeranging back and striking the Engineer in the back. The man stumbled and fell dead, but more quickly took his place. Alphonse tore an entire seat out of the floor and, using it as a shield, rushed forward to clear out the doorway.

"C'mon, let's get to that ship!" he called to the others, who quickly spilled out of the car and digistructed their own weapons. Zach threw up his Surveyor Turret, which zipped around at the top of the cars and rapidly spat out energized bullets at the Engineers, and he went to town with his Jakobs assault rifle. Through the corner of his eye he saw Kenny standing in the back with a sniper rifle and shooting out headshot after headshot faster than he thought was humanly possible.

Ania and Proxy were working together incredibly well, the girl using some kind of decoy device to create constant copies of herself and wrangle a group of Engineers together. The masked boy let out a terrifying laugh and ran forward with two live grenades in his hands, jumping into the tightly-packed group and screaming "KABOOM, YOU ROBOTIC _BITCHES!_" AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS. The unfortunate men ate enough shrapnel to last a lifetime, and when their mangled bodies fell to reveal a perfectly unharmed Proxy, Zach realize his shield must make him immune to explosions. _God **damn **that's brutal_.

They reached the car that the Dahl ship had boarded onto, to find it predictably crowded with Dahl Engineers. Sailor stood forward confidently, her tattoos and eyes glowing.

"I got this one," she said casual, letting out a blast of purple energy that threw the Engineers back into the other car and trapped them their, no bullets or punches puncturing the Phasefield. The Vault Hunters quickly boarded the starship, Sailor last of all, and Zach immediately went to the controls.  
"Do you know how to fly this thing?" the Siren asked as she shut the door and released the airlock that connected them to the train.  
"How hard can it be? Zach asked, trying to sound as confident as she had earlier. He grabbed the steering wheel, flipped off the hover lock, and pressed the big red button on the right part of the wheel. They ship lurched forward, sending them flying towards Arcadia with reckless abandon.

"You're going too fast!" Sailor shouted at him as they zoomed past the train station and, moments later, entered the atmosphere with a loud sonic boom. The Siren jumped forward and tried to grab the controls away from him, causing the ship to veer left.  
"I can't find the breaks!" Zach replied in a panic, trying to turn them back towards landable space.  
"Get out of the pilots seat!" she snapped, trying to shove him away.  
"I'M TRYING TO FIND THE FUCKING BREAKS!"  
"M-MOUNTAIN!"

Everyone turned to look at the wide-eyed Proxy, who was pointing at something outside the window. The group turned back to see what he was pointing at, only to find the ship smack straight into the tip of a snow-capped mountain, somersault over it, and tumble all the way down, coming to rest on a grassy ledge. Zach opened his eyes to find them miraculously right-side-up, with Sailor face-down on his lap. Both of them panicked and shoved away from each other, turning to look at their companions.

"Is everyone okay?" Zach asked hesitantly. His response was various groans of pain and a groggy Proxy asking "Have you met the brainmuffin man?", but at least that meant they were alive. He went over and tried to open up the door, but found that their crash-landing had dented it shut.  
"Hold on to something," Alphonse told him, moving forward and immediately kicking at the door. The entire ship shook, then shook again as he gave an even harder kick. A third made the door fling open, a snapping sound making Zach think it broke off it's hinges. The group of Vault Hunters spilled out of the ship, eagerly breathing in the fresh air. Zach made a point of look back, and saw that the door had indeed been kicked off it's hinges and was embedded in the rockside twenty or so meters away.

"What now?" Kenny asked, leaning against the broken ship. "Anyone have a HUD?"  
Everyone shook their heads, except for Ania, who held up three. There was a moment of silence where the others stared at her, before she defensively snapped "Do you have a problem with looting the dead?"  
"Wh-what about th-the other h-half of us?" Proxy's stuttering appeared to come and go along with his psychosis, but that didn't stop his question from making Ania falter.  
"Well, uh…" she pursed her lips. "We'll find a town and get more."

Sailor reached forward and grabbed one of the HUD devices, clipping it onto her belt and waiting a moment as it started up. A map popped up in front of her face, and Zach peaked over her shoulder. Thanks to the HUD not technically belonging to her and not being formatted, the map was filled out, and a small town was listed in the opposite corner of the area.

"There's a town called Harborage to the east." she informed the others, moving away from the others and lowering her map. I'll lead the way, Ania give out those other HUD devices." The Siren's no-nonsense tone made the others inclined to follow her directions. Ania gave one of her HUD devices to Al, and equipped the other for herself, leaving Zach, Kenny and Proxy to simply follow blindly. Zach didn't really mind, since he definitely did not want to be in charge anyways, and Proxy was too busy looking at the expansive mountains and plateaus of the area, which Sailor's map had listed as Waterway Glen. Kenny didn't seem happy about the following thing, but Zach had decided he was just a grumpy person in general.

"Th-this place i-is p-pretty," Proxy murmured, reaching out and touching some of the shoulder-length flowers that they walked past.  
"And dangerous," Kenny spoke up, pushing the teen's hand away from the flowers. "Shrieks live in patches of Psalms. You'd do best to not disturb them."  
"What are Shrieks?" Zach asked curiously.  
"Winged rats that scream at the top of their lungs. Easy to dispatch when they're alone, but," Kenny grimaced. "They're never alone."  
"I thought Arcadia was a tame planet," Ania looked back at the sniper with confusion. Kenny shook his head, looking amused.  
"So did the colonists. And then the Carks ate them." he replied dryly. "I think you'll soon find that this place is no different from Pandora or Promethea...or any other colonized planet in this galaxy, actually."  
"Wouldn't be any fun otherwise," Al piped in, his booming laugh being the last human sound the others heard for the duration of their numbing walk to Harborage.

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**Ships meant two things, see, both character/character ships and literal ships that are vehicles, making my ships joke literally the funniest thing said by anything ever.**

**If you would like me to continue this thing please review and feed my ego.**


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